We present an experimental study of Rayleigh–Bénard convection using liquid metal alloy gallium-indium-tin as the working fluid with a Prandtl number of $Pr=0.029$. The flow state and the heat transport were measured in a Rayleigh number range of $1.2\times 10^{4} \le Ra \le 1.3\times 10^{7}$. The temperature fluctuation at the cell centre is used as a proxy for the flow state. It is found that, as $Ra$ increases from the lower end of the parameter range, the flow evolves from a convection state to an oscillation state, a chaotic state and finally a turbulent state for $Ra>10^5$. The study suggests that the large-scale circulation in the turbulent state is a residual of the cell structure near the onset of convection, which is in contrast with the case of $Pr\sim 1$, where the cell structure is transiently replaced by high order flow modes before the emergence of the large-scale circulation in the turbulent state. The evolution of the flow state is also reflected by the heat transport characterised by the Nusselt number $Nu$ and the probability density function (p.d.f.) of the temperature fluctuation at the cell centre. It is found that the effective local heat transport scaling exponent $\gamma$, i.e. $Nu\sim Ra^{\gamma }$, changes continuously from $\gamma =0.49$ at $Ra\sim 10^4$ to $\gamma =0.25$ for $Ra>10^6$. Meanwhile, the p.d.f. at the cell centre gradually evolves from a Gaussian-like shape before the transition to turbulence to an exponential-like shape in the turbulent state. For $Ra>10^6$, the flow shows self-similar behaviour, which is revealed by the universal shape of the p.d.f. of the temperature fluctuation at the cell centre and a $Nu=0.19Ra^{0.25}$ scaling for the heat transport.

According to Hamilton's rule, matrilineal-biased investment restrains men in matrilineal societies from maximising their inclusive fitness (the ‘matrilineal puzzle'). A recent hypothesis argues that when women breed communally and share household resources, a man should help his sisters' household, rather than his wife's household, as investment to the later but not the former would be diluted by other unrelated members (Wu et al., 2013). According to this hypothesis, a man is less likely to help on his wife's farm when there are more women reproducing in the wife's household, because on average he would be less related to his wife's household. We used a farm-work observational dataset, that we collected in the matrilineal Mosuo in southwest China, to test this hypothesis. As predicted, high levels of communal breeding by women in his wife's households do predict less effort spent by men on their wife's farm, and communal breeding in men's natal households do not affect whether men help on their natal farms. Thus, communal breeding by women dilutes the inclusive fitness benefits men receive from investment to their wife and children, and may drive the evolution of matrilineal-biased investment by men. These results can help solve the ‘matrilineal puzzle'.

Ebselen is a well-known synthetic compound mimicking glutathione peroxidase (GPx), which catalyses some vital reactions that protect against oxidative damage. Based on a large number of in vivo and in vitro studies, various mechanisms have been proposed to explain its actions on multiple targets. It targets thiol-related compounds, including cysteine, glutathione, and thiol proteins (e.g., thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase). Owing to this, ebselen is a unique multifunctional agent with important effects on inflammation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, cell differentiation, immune regulation and neurodegenerative disease, with anti-microbial, detoxifying and anti-tumour activity. This review summarises the current understanding of the multiple biological processes and molecules targeted by ebselen, and its pharmacological applications.

The study was conducted to determine the effects of three dietary Se sources, such as sodium-selenite (S-S), seleno-yeast (S-Y) and seleno-methionine (S-M), on Se concentration, glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and TXNRD activities, and mRNA expression of fifteen representative selenoproteins, and protein expression of four endoplasmic reticulum-resided selenoproteins in a wide range of tissues of yellow catfish. Compared with S-S and S-M groups, dietary S-Y significantly decreased growth performance and feed utilisation of yellow catfish. Dietary Se sources significantly influenced Se contents in the spleen, dorsal muscle and the kidney, GPX activities in spleen, kidney, intestine, muscle and mesenteric fat, and TXNRD activities in the heart, intestine and mesenteric fat. Among ten tested tissues, dietary Se sources influenced mRNA expression of GPX4 and SELENOK in three tissues; GPX3, SELENOS and TXNRD2 in four tissues; SELENOF, SELENON and DIO2 in five tissues; SELENOM, GPX1/2 and TXNRD3 in six tissues; SELENOW in seven tissue and SELENOP and SELENOT in eight tissues. Based on these observations above, S-S and S-M seem to be suitable Se sources for improving growth performance and feed utilisation of yellow catfish. Dietary Se sources differentially influence the expression of selenoproteins in various tissues of yellow catfish. For the first time, we determined the expression of selenoproteins in fish in responses to dietary Se sources, which contributes to a better understanding of the functions and regulatory mechanisms of selenoporteins.

Case identification is an ongoing issue for the COVID-19 epidemic, in particular for outpatient care where physicians must decide which patients to prioritise for further testing. This paper reports tools to classify patients based on symptom profiles based on 236 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 positive cases and 564 controls, accounting for the time course of illness using generalised multivariate logistic regression. Significant symptoms included abdominal pain, cough, diarrhoea, fever, headache, muscle ache, runny nose, sore throat, temperature between 37.5 and 37.9 °C and temperature above 38 °C, but their importance varied by day of illness at assessment. With a high percentile threshold for specificity at 0.95, the baseline model had reasonable sensitivity at 0.67. To further evaluate accuracy of model predictions, leave-one-out cross-validation confirmed high classification accuracy with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.92. For the baseline model, sensitivity decreased to 0.56. External validation datasets reported similar result. Our study provides a tool to discern COVID-19 patients from controls using symptoms and day from illness onset with good predictive performance. It could be considered as a framework to complement laboratory testing in order to differentiate COVID-19 from other patients presenting with acute symptoms in outpatient care.

In present study, we explored the effects and the underlying mechanisms of phospholipase C (PLC) mediating glucose-induced changes in intestinal glucose transport and lipid metabolism by using U-73122 (a PLC inhibitor). We found that glucose incubation activated the PLC signal and U-73122 pre-incubation alleviated the glucose-induced increase in plcb2, plce1 and plcg1 mRNA expression. Meanwhile, U-73122 pre-treatment blunted the glucose-induced increase in sodium/glucose co-transporters 1/2 mRNA and protein expressions. U-73122 pre-treatment alleviated the glucose-induced increase in TAG content, BODIPY 493/503 fluorescence intensity, lipogenic enzymes (glucose 6-phospate dehydrogenase (G6PD), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD), malic enzyme and fatty acid synthase (FAS)) activity and the mRNA expressions of lipogenic genes and related transcription factors (6pgd, g6pd, fas, acca, srebp1 and carbohydrate response element-binding protein (chrebp)) in intestinal epithelial cells of yellow catfish. Further research found that U-73122 pre-incubation mitigated the glucose-induced increase in the ChREBP protein expression and the acetylation level of ChREBP in HEK293T cells. Taken together, these data demonstrated that the PLC played a major role in the glucose-induced changes of glucose transport and lipid metabolism and provide a new perspective for revealing the molecular mechanism of glucose-induced changes of intestinal glucose absorption, lipid deposition and metabolism.

The ablation and acceleration of diamond-like high-density carbon foils irradiated by thermal X-ray radiations are investigated with radiation hydrodynamics simulations. The time-dependent front of the ablation wave is given numerically for radiation temperatures in the range of 100–300 eV. The mass ablation rates and ablation pressures can be derived or implied from the coordinates of ablation fronts, which agree well with reported experiment results of high-density carbon with radiation temperatures Trad in the range of 160–260 eV. It is also found that the $T_{{\rm rad}}^3$ scaling law for ablation rates does not apply to Trad above 260 eV. The trajectories of targets and hydrodynamic efficiencies for different target thicknesses can be derived from the coordinates of ablation fronts using a rocket model and the results agree well with simulations. The peak hydrodynamic efficiencies of the acceleration process are investigated for different foil thicknesses and radiation temperatures. Higher radiation temperatures and target thicknesses result in higher hydrodynamic efficiencies. The simulation results are useful for the design of fusion capsules.

Dysregulation in hepatic lipid synthesis by excess dietary carbohydrate intake is often relevant with the occurrence of fatty liver; therefore, the thorough understanding of the regulation of lipid deposition and metabolism seems crucial to search for potential regulatory targets. In the present study, we examined TAG accumulation, lipid metabolism-related gene expression, the enzyme activities of lipogenesis-related enzymes, the protein levels of transcription factors or genes involving lipogenesis in the livers of yellow catfish fed five dietary carbohydrate sources, such as glucose, maize starch, sucrose, potato starch and dextrin, respectively. Generally speaking, compared with other carbohydrate sources, dietary glucose promoted TAG accumulation, up-regulated lipogenic enzyme activities and gene expressions, and down-regulated mRNA expression of genes involved in lipolysis and small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) modification pathways. Further studies found that sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1), a key transcriptional factor relevant to lipogenic regulation, was modified by SUMO1. Mutational analyses found two important sites for SUMOylation modification (K254R and K264R) in SREBP1. Mutant SREBP lacking lysine 264 up-regulated the transactivation capacity on an SREBP-responsive promoter. Glucose reduced the SUMOylation level of SREBP1 and promoted the protein expression of SREBP1 and its target gene stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1), indicating that SUMOylation of SREBP1 mediated glucose-induced hepatic lipid metabolism. Our study elucidated the molecular mechanism of dietary glucose increasing hepatic lipid deposition and found that the SREBP-dependent transactivation was regulated by SUMO1 modification, which served as a new target for the transcriptional programmes governing lipid metabolism.

Maternal supraphysiological estradiol (E2) environment during pregnancy leads to adverse perinatal outcomes. However, the influence of oocyte exposure to high E2 levels on perinatal outcomes remains unknown. Thus, a retrospective cohort study was conducted to explore the effect of high E2 level induced by controlled ovarian stimulation (COH) on further outcomes after frozen embryo transfer (FET). The study included all FET cycles (n = 10,581) between 2014 and 2017. All cycles were categorized into three groups according to the E2 level on the day of the human Chorionic Gonadotropin trigger. Odds ratios (ORs) and their confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the association between E2 level during COH and pregnancy outcomes and subsequent neonatal outcomes. From our findings, higher E2 level was associated with lower percentage of chemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, and live birth as well as increased frequency of early miscarriage. Preterm births were more common among singletons in women with higher E2 level during COH (aOR1 = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.22–3.06; aOR2 = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.33–3.06). Incidence of small for gestational age (SGA) was more common in both singletons (aOR1 = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.30–3.11; aOR2 = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.69–3.74) and multiples (aOR1 = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.03–2.45; aOR2 = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.05–3.84) among women with relatively higher E2 level. No association was found between high E2 level during COH and the percentage of macrosomia or large for gestational age. In summary, oocyte exposure to high E2 level during COH should be brought to our attention, since the pregnancy rate decreasing and the risk of preterm birth and SGA increasing following FET.

Disturbances in lipid metabolism are at the core of several health issues facing modern society, including fatty liver and obesity. The sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) is one important transcription factor regulating lipid metabolism, but the relevant mechanism still remains unknown. The present study determined the transcriptional regulation of SREBP-1 and its target genes (including acetyl-CoA carboxylase α (accα), fatty acid synthase (fas) and stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (scd1)) in a freshwater teleost, grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella. We cloned and characterised the 1988 bp, 2043 bp, 1632 bp and 1889 bp sequences of srebp-1, accα, scd1 and fas promoters, respectively. A cluster of putative binding sites of transcription factors, such as specific protein, yin yang 1, nuclear factor Y, sterol response elements (SRE) and enhancer box (E-box) element, were predicted on their promoter regions. Overexpression of nSREBP-1 reduced srebp-1 promoter activity, increased scd1 and fas promoter activity but did not influence accα promoter activity. The site-mutation and electrophoretic mobility shift assay analysis indicated that srebp-1, fas and scd1 promoters, but not accα promoter, possessed SRE. In Ctenopharyngodon idella kidney (CIK) cells of grass carp, nSREBP-1 overexpression significantly reduced srebp-1 mRNA expression and up-regulated miR-29 mRNA expression. The 3′UTR of srebp-1 possessed the potential miR-29 binding site and miR-29 up-regulated the luciferase activity of srebp-1 3′UTR and srebp-1 mRNA expression, implying a self-activating loop of SREBP-1 and miR-29 in grass carp. Based on the above-mentioned results, we found two novel transcriptional mechanisms for SREBP-1 in grass carp: (1) the auto-regulation sited on the SREBP-1 promoter regions was suppressive and (2) there was a self-activating loop of SREBP-1 and miR-29.

Nonuniform dispersion and weak interfacial bonding between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Cu matrix are two critical issues for achieving high strength and good ductility of CNT/Cu composites. Here, acid-treated CNTs precoated with Ni coatings were used to enhance the dispersion uniformity of CNTs and interfacial bonding between CNTs and Cu matrix in the CNT/Cu composites fabricated through spark plasma sintering and subsequently cold rolling. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed the homogeneous dispersion of Ni-coated CNTs (Ni-CNTs) in the composite compared with uncoated CNTs. Transmission electron microscope observation indicated that Cu2O nanoparticles were in situ formed at the interface in Ni-CNT/Cu composite, where CNTs were uncovered by Ni coatings. After rolling, the distribution of Ni-CNTs transformed into ribbons aligning along the rolling direction. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 261 MPa was achieved in rolled 1 vol% Ni-CNT/Cu composite, which was 24.3% higher than that before rolling. The UTS of 2 vol% Ni-CNT/Cu composite obviously decreased, which could be attributed to the agglomeration of Ni-CNTs in the Cu matrix due to the increased volume content.

We experimentally investigate the informational theory of legislative committees (Gilligan and Krehbiel 1989). Two committee members provide policy-relevant information to a legislature under alternative legislative rules. Under the open rule, the legislature is free to make any decision; under the closed rule, the legislature chooses between a member’s proposal and a status quo. We find that even in the presence of biases, the committee members improve the legislature’s decision by providing useful information. We obtain evidence for two additional predictions: the outlier principle, according to which more extreme biases reduce the extent of information transmission; and the distributional principle, according to which the open rule is more distributionally efficient than the closed rule. When biases are less extreme, we find that the distributional principle dominates the restrictive-rule principle, according to which the closed rule is more informationally efficient. Overall, our findings provide experimental support for Gilligan and Krehbiel’s informational theory.

In this paper, the complete consistency for the weighted estimator of non-parametric regression model based on widely orthant-dependent errors is established, where the restriction imposed on the dominating coefficient g(n) is very general. Moreover, under some stronger moment condition, we further obtain the convergence rate of the complete consistency, where the assumption on the dominating coefficient g(n) is also very general.

Zr–Co–Al alloys possess prospects of wide applications in the field of nuclear reactor cladding materials and biomedical materials. (Zr0.5Co0.5)100−x Al x (x = 1, 2, 3 at.%) alloys were prepared by the water-cooling copper mold suction casting technique, and the microstructure and compression mechanical properties of the alloys were investigated. The results showed that the as-cast Zr–Co–Al alloys mainly consisted of the B2 ZrCo phase with columnar or equiaxed grains and a small quantity of intermetallic compounds, i.e., Co2Zr and Zr2Co. The yield strength of Zr–Co–Al alloys increased with increasing Al content, but the plasticity decreased at the same time. The as-cast Zr49.5Co49.5Al1 alloy attained the highest ultimate compression strength up to 2.57 ± 0.02 GPa and the largest compression strain up to ∼54.7%. The B2 to B33 martensitic transformation that occurred during the deformation process was investigated using high resolution transmission electron microscopy. It was concluded that the enhanced plasticity of Zr49.5Co49.5Al1 alloy can be attributed to the transformation induced plasticity associated with the deformation-induced martensitic transformation.